460 IMPERIAL KINGSHIP

in corresponding with her ministers. King Edward had never been fond of
reading anything except newspapers. And though he had serious interests
he had always been used (and his exclusion from public affairs increased the
tendency) to spending much of his time in travelling, in sport and in society.
He had wide experience and knowledge of foreign affairs and he knew the
personnel of the British Government thoroughly, but he had never been given
any practice in the technique of constitutional government, and on the verge
of sixty years of age he was rather old to learn it. As King he had influence
upon Government, but certainly less than Queen Victoria and less than his
successor George V. latterly came to have.

The urgent problems of external affairs were successfully solved. The
Anglo-Boer War was finished within sixteen months of the King's accession. It
would have ended a year earlier if Milner, the High Commissioner in South
Africa, would have consented to the amnestying of some three hundred Cape
rebels whom the Boers in the field loyally protected. The British Commander-
in-Chief in South Africa, Lord Kitchener, wrote to the Secretary of State for
War (22nd March 1901): " Milner's views may be strictly just but they are to
my mind vindictive. We are now carrying on the war to put some two or three
hundred Dutchmen in prison at the end of it. It seems to me absurd and wrong."
So the war continued with all its tragedy not only for the fighters in the field,
but for the Boer women and children who had to be kept in concentration
camps; the loss of lives in these camps was twenty thousand, from disease.1
The King kept closely in touch with all reports from the seat of war, and
expressed useful opinions about military appointments. After peace negotia-
tions were opened he was chagrined to learn about the proposed terms in a
letter from the German Emperor. How William II. knew the proposals made
by Milner and Kitchener in South Africa before the King or Cabinet learned
of them has never been explained. The Peace Treaty of Vereeniging was
concluded on 3ist May 1902. The Transvaal and Orange Free State had
already been declared to be annexed to Great Britain. By the Vereeniging
terms all the Boers who were willing to declare themselves loyal subjects of
Edward VII. were free to return to their farms and houses; and a grant of
£3,000,000 was made by Parliament towards rebuilding and restocking.

While the Anglo-Boer war was ending, the intermittent negotiations between
Great Britain and Germany for an alliance were coming to an end too. There
is some question who began them : but there is no doubt that from 1898 to
1901 there was quite a strong movement, unofficially, among certain social
groups (Ballin, the Rothschilds, the Duchess of Devonshire) and among certain
ministers and diplomats (Eckardstein, Chamberlain), for an Anglo-German

lEnsor, op. eit. p. 347. From January 1901 to February 1902 (inclusive) out of 117,871 people ia
the concentration camps, 20,177 died